Friday, January 18, 2013

Defending Champs Loss

There have been 74 NCAA Tournaments, which means there have been 73 potential opportunities for the defending champion to lose in the following year's tournament. However, the defending champion has only done so in 42 out of those 73. There are two reasons why the defending champ would not be defeated in the following tournament:

They defended their championship.

They missed the tournament.

No team has ever defeated the defending champion two years in a row, but there are four schools that have multiple victories over the defending champion.

Indiana (1953, 1976, 2002)

Arizona (1997, 2001, 2011)

Michigan State (1999, 2003, 2009)

North Carolina State (1974, 2005)

14 times the team that defeated the defending champion ended up losing to that year's eventual champion with Arizona accomplishing that feat twice in 2001 and 2011.

In 2001, Arizona defeated Michigan State, but lost to Duke.

In 2011, Arizona defeated Duke, but lost to Connecticut.

The last 4 times that a team has defeated the defending champion, they went on to lose to the eventual champion.

2006, George Mason defeated North Carolina, but lost to Florida

2007, Florida defended championship

2008, Florida missed tournament

2009, Michigan State defeated Kansas, but lost to North Carolina

2010, North Carolina missed tournament

2011, Arizona defeated Duke, but lost to Connecticut

2012, Iowa State defeated Connecticut, but lost to Kentucky

George Mason is the only team to defeat the last two defending champions (different teams) in the same tournament when they defeated North Carolina and Connecticut in 2004.